savannah book festival. [applause] hello. thank you for coming by one to talk this afternoon how i came to this book or how the book came to me which sometimes is the simultaneous even enter how

a connecticut yankee public career in journalism and failed attempts at fiction suddenly decides he wants to be a historian. but not only that he wants to write about comanche in the great plains which is as far from connecticut as the frozen moons of jupiter. will not a boy you of the details of my past but to put it as briefly as possible i had my little epiphany in the spring of 1970 per garbus just admitted to princeton university and i was traveling there for a weekend where you see if you want to go there. it was a glorious day. just like this morning and the spring was in full bloom per car had taken a train and the last leg was on a smaller train which was the princeton to princeton junction that took the right to the campus.

i happen to be reading of book by f. scott fitzgerald called this side of paradise. it was flat -- about life there princeton in absolute a magical. i cannot even read two paragraphs now it is so adolescence but at the time it was magical i finished it just as the train pulled into the station princeton is as cute as a button. finishing just as the train pulls then and i walk up to the campus and i remember thinking there is absolutely nothing in the world that i would rather do than to write like scott -- of scott fitzgerald. it was all downhill from there. [laughter]

for the next 15 years i wrote a bunch of fiction and publish some of it got a graduate fellowship but none of what i did was much good unfortunately. not great stuff i worked for i had jobs was a banker and a teacher but all the while i persisted to see myself as a writer i would go home at night and read by gertrude stein i did better henry james or whatever was doing. and still i was aware at some level as time went buy i was not exactly living in paris sipping champagne and i was aware of that it was not happening for me. at some point* it occurred i could make a living by writing so i became a reporter in my early '30's. if i got better and better at nonfiction that dream slowly went away everything now is black and white at my age. it is hard for me to

understand myself were things were not so absolute where you could be an international banker or a writer. the fiction dream went away then in one great glorious a spectacular book as 700 word novel that the main effect was to cause my agent in new york not to return my phone calls. [laughter] then it was gone and it was a cathartic experience. it did not happen that long ago but it had to be done and we all realize what we cannot do. i do not read read it. i don't think of myself as a failed novelist. i don't care her gourde of read fiction but here is the difference. coming down to the legendary

blank page that the writer sees. that blank page for a fiction writer absolutely astonishing on that blank page there's no rules it could be about iran or mars or new jersey horrible will be or a martian death the more it -- meritor lifer birth. what am i supposed to do? i don't know. applying to my a journalism as well as my history it is palpable or rio something very real that you hang onto minstar with the premise of the real. so i and up in austin, texas as executive editor of a magazine called texas monthly now i know what to do and if there in texas the comanche nonsense started.

when i told my journalist friends i was writing the history of the comanches i got a lot of blank stares you can see the of wheels turning in their brains to figure out the angle. is there an indian nation health care obama no, no, no just a dusty history something that happened 300 years ago and say that is great. [laughter] we cannot wait to read it. meaning good luck jack i frankly did not care burger wanted to do well and we should all do things that we want to do. the fact is a lot of us write books but very few are

interested in jumping back into history partly because, not to run them down but they have the attention span of an act. partly because the obvious lack of qualification. having a thesis ridden in in 1871 it is at the library although what i hear you can check your thesis out in the princeton library so my plan is to go check it out and take it somewhere and burn it. [laughter] but i have not done that yet. [laughter] i am not a historian not sitting in oklahoma university mulling over native american history so why does a reporter become interested something that

happened in the faraway past? is something called generational memory i grew up in connecticut in massachusetts part of the country were native american tribes were subdued a long time ago. the 1600s i was aware of the indians on cape cod even playing summer baseball they cease to exist as the free tribe 100 years before my ancestors got off the bow and nobody really knew about the mohegans or at all a consequence because too much time had intervened. nobody had a conceivable memory of them. but in texas where i moved as the time bureau chief in 1994, the whole sense of the frontier and native americans was radically different. never would have written

this book or have gone near its divided now move to texas one of those strange circumstances that happens when you move. in texas it was part of my job to travel the state and write the stories for "time" magazine then texas monthly i met a lot of people who told about the comanche's part of the lady who sat next to me at texas monthly had both of her great grandparents were killed and a comanche raid. i knew my great grandparents somebody's grandfather had done business with them and there's a sense of the immediacy of the frontier. and often in my travels of beard and mixing of legend and history i am doing a as a story lakota makes these

great close but the factory had burned down so why and went up sitting in a bar he would tell me about a pat -- a battle that took place right out there you could see it with a spanish janet comanche's. i don't know what he was talking about. it turns out to it was the end of spanish power in the new world. literally where the comanche's rolled the end of spanish power in the new world which is a substantial event as the aztecs could tell you. stories like that here i am traveling around the state saying i don't know

anything. one of the reasons is the immediacy of the of frontier the comanche is the last of the indian surrendering 1785 then there was jostling on and off the reservation happening into the 20th century. the frontier was the immediate thing. the tribe that was featured in most of the stories there were a lot of wichita in a bunch of other tribes in texas even like the apaches but the tribe that you always heard about were the comanche i don't know about you but in my depredations bringing they were something or a word that occurred in the john wayne movie old -- always a code word for danger. that is the comanche arrow.

always like that. you did not know why the comanches were bad. but they were bad and they were very bad folks. there was a remembering of the past going on in texas that got me interested in this story. but it is not just the remembering of the past but also for getting. simultaneous and contradictory revelation. although they were playing off almost everybody else had forgotten the average texan talk about the fastest-growing state 500,000 people per year coming and coming from illinois and mexico they don't know these things. my daughter did not know these things. she grew up in texas and she is 19. in 1940 i would venture to

say every single schoolchild in the state of texas new the kidnapping of the parker the rescuer then her son was the last of the greatest chiefs talk to a texan above a certain age they could tell you those things. this is a good story if you have read my book one of my great discoveries was a guy named jack hayes john coffee case. the original and greatest ranger. the greatest indian fighter one of the greatest commanders america ever produced he developed in the comanche war techniques that were for that had never existed before later used

with brutal e effectiveness with the war in mexico and adopted a failed invention by a man named sam been can -- stand in the connecticut and it was said before jack came into the american west everybody came on foot lugging the rifle but after him they came on horseback carrying six guns. i am leading up to something because i am trying to describe the process of remembering and for getting. jack hayes seem to be completely forgotten. there is a county named hays county and inside of that there is a high-school called hayes high school the greatest ranger and by the way in a state that absolutely treasures rangers the texas rangers are

mythical. would you suppose in the state that the mascot of the high school team would be the rangers'? no. they are the rebels. [laughter] i have no problem with rebels except jack hayes left texas to become the first sheriff of san francisco during the gold rush. he is not a bubble but nobody in hays county knows who he is people in san antonio where he was the sixth stage six shooter knows who he is this was going on and hear was the a great opportunity i saw as a writer because i am a relatively smart guy and even living in texas i did not know who they were. did you ever hear of

geronimo? everybody heard of him. yes here of custer? yes. here of mackenzie the actual greatest fighter? never heard of that. >> john coffee hayes who should be a household word like davy crockett but he is not? and no. you can just keep going. the fact is for me as a writer i could go sell a book in new york to people not only to an editor who gives me many which they do but i could sell to a country that had never heard of these guys. what it a cool thing. the answer to why they tended to we bottled up and prisoners of their region. 700 copies go to schools and libraries and the distribution so i saw my opportunity. i took it. the comanche story is just

one of the great stories and what i love about it is it is the best kind of a school you can get from the most beloved history professor to use a vehicle the comanche tribe which is very cool in itself but to teach you how the west was one. it was not one by the white people until it was lost by the comanches. they constituted an incredible physical barrier to everything that happened in the west the mexicans and texans and americans and spanish and everybody else. and determined what happened around them. occupied the southern plains 250,000 square miles. they basically in a sense held up themselves the ford

progress of the american empire put before that they blocked the northward expansion of america partly the reason is the spanish jennifer in the provided them with an astonishing piece of technology known as of course. it was the attempt to move west turns out the made the mistake of farming that comanche and amaze. texas exist because of comanche's. what does it exist? here is what happened. the mexicans needed to stabilize the northern border. they own the texas in one way to do that the israelis have discovered is you settle it and put people there. the more you settle the more it stabilized in of the purpose is to control that is what you do. taxes did not want to do there because there were

comanche's but the red next lee scott irish red head people like davy crockett, they had no problem coming in to settle in this land. the grand plan of mexico it backfired because the texans wanted independence after a little bald at the alamo they got it. so in the fact this is not the only reason taxes happened but in part misguided to stop the comanche. that is a good way to tell history to somebody who does not know the history of texas. so many other things, the rangers are a product and finally with the 40 year war just true of line from san antonio through fort worth that is where the frontiers at 40 years. nothing even remotely similar happened with any

other tribe. i call them the most powerful tribe in american history and people ask me if comanche is meant the western sioux in who would win? there is actually a show with a computer bits a mongolia and against the historical union but even though they are fabulous warriors but they mean the power to influence the course of history. and absolutely no tribe has such a determinants effect on what happened in north america. the plains tribes were mounted. you could find them. they were agrarian. nomadic course found comanche's or shai man o' war arapahoe or the sioux indians were far harder to

eradicate. that is a big military picture but the way the bookworks on the one hand you have a big picture of the rise and fall of the comanches which is interesting because of their great power. but the other side is the more intimate and small story of the parker family the little girl who is taken so the way my book is organized alternating chapter. big chapters than the parker family and eventually runs together. the organizing event is in 1836 this is where quanah parker was taken a small moment in has -- history that has historical significance. that was the same year texas one its independence.

if the parker family had built a stockade 90 miles south of texas. they were out to the comanche frontier it is almost ridiculous. they were way out beyond almost anybody else on the frontier. one thing to keep in mind how the american west was settled, people sometimes think there was a sweep across that went north or south. it was not to. it was all south. the human frontier was in texas nothing going on up north. fifth great clash was down in the south. five people were killed others were wounded five captives women and children

one was cynthia anne parker. this is a routine raid they had been doing this for many, many years. but in historical terms it was a defining moment of the front here. two reasons. first-come it marked the start of the longest and most brutal war between americans and a single native tribes also because it involved the woman who was to be the most famous as a captive. it took place precisely at the point* where the westward booming american empire that the parker's did not realize that enormous american empire moving west. meeting the 250,000 square bio comanche empire. nobody could see this at the time but it was right there.

that is where the parker's build the house. how they had any idea that is what they we're doing i am sure they never would have done it. why was that empire there? the reason it was there is a result of 150 years of sustained combat with one goal of the south plains. why? those the master the horse like no other tried because that is where the buffalo were. over 150 years the comanche's essentially use their unbelievable mastery of the course to challenge as they went south nearly exterminated the apaches eventually gaining what they wanted which was the south plains which is where the buffalo were. that is where the parker's

plucked that little house right on the edge of that. pretty good idea. this is where they built the frontier paradise and the chain of events, i am sorry. one more thing that is really interesting about where they put the house. if you look at america before columbus the entire east coast was one dense grimm brothers forest. it was dense. dense. slipped from the east coast about the 98th meridian. right through the middle of texas right from san antonio in dallas and essentially it was bazaar's you have a culture in the east was the culture of the woods based on timber, land, water. when you got past the tree-lined this is a

terrifying moment. no trees to build houses. no water. all of that happened right there so it was asked that edge of that physical geographical.org geological moment where the land changed and that was there. that is where they built the house. we have that captivity of cynthia parker she bore three children, refused to come back. famous as the white squall who would not return. that story played out. her oldest son in the greatest comanche warrior of his age, not going into great detail here but wind great story of quanah parker i. a. consider quanah parker one of the most

extraordinary of the 14th century one of the most ford -- formidable warriors that is saying something. our brilliant feel the general, and never defeated by whites in battle. led the last of the comanche into the terrible dying days of 1875 and the buffalo had all been killed after all the other tribes have surrendered. he moved to the comanche reservation and transformed himself in oklahoma the way that his mother had. she had adapted brilliantly to the comanche culture now he adapted to the white culture. he went from the fierce this plains warrior to the most successful influential indian of the period and controlled a small cattle empire, outfoxed the white man add to the leasing games in a friend of to the roosevelt and accumulated a

large fortune of almost all of which he gave away to help his fellow comanche's. the year is 1871. keep in mind a 35 years after the first battle of the comanche. the frontier was still shockingly where it had been. it was not moving. keep in mind with the civil war men who were running america are the gramm warriors who have destroyed the south. the president is ulysses s. grant and william tecumseh sherman and also phil sheridan all of these names are familiar. and these are the men who were running things. 1871, they unleashed the greatest war machine in american history. looking at this tribe that was sitting there holding up everything.

1871 these guys said, one of the reasons the comanches were still there as i point* out is the civil war took the attention away from the planes. 1871 that attention was no longer focused on the war or reconstructions but now look to see what we will do about the comanche problem. quanah parker was 21 years old the leader of the most remote and most hostile bands in the panhandle by low becker amarillo texas. they were an amazing bunch. they kept away from the white man contracted very few of the disease is. 15,000 horses, they traded with men who operated out of new mexico.

you see them in movies as a rough bunch. so grant and sherman decide they have been death so they center colonel mackenzie down, and he wrote rues career parallels custer. so they send mackenzie 600 bluecoats ride out and they will get the comanches and the target is the village village, quanah parker has a village. we don't know exactly how big the village was but we think 200 tepees. it was the village was when the and children and dogs and cattle and horses. what happened is astonishing

quanah parker it gave mackenzie the most extraordinary lesson of planes were fair. the indians were vastly outnumbered. reached loading repeating rifles the comanche's if they had anything at all it was the muskets but mostly bows and arrows. let me see if i can briefly describe called the battle of blenko canyon. the bluecoats they're pretty tough people. there were not complete idiots thereafter playing cat and mouse where quanah parker stampedes sources, the bluecoats calgary move forward and locate the village and they

will move on the village. they march to where the villages but it is gone. so they send the scouts out to figure out where it was. what has happened is they get to a point* where they realize all of the crisscrossing lines. a horse to avoid vertu long poles on the back of a horse so they could carry things because they did not have wheels. as a large group of migrating comanche's move to have parallel way at the -- lines in the sand so suddenly all of the lines go crazy then the village disappears and then they realize sinhalese the village has doubled back and it is now behind them. 200 lodges we don't know how many people but a bunch with

four years. they are furious they have to give up the next day now they will just go get the village and they are mad. now the village disappears again and now they realize midcap brock is a steep cliff that rises between 200 and 1,000 feet the whole village disappeared up the cap brock. so the soldiers go up to the top the realize the village has gone down and attractive again and again the crisscrossing lines and they lose it. it sounds like i make this up it is the account of the medal of honor winner who hated quanah parker but admires what he did. the village disappears again and goes back up the cap

rock now the soldiers have them. back up to the top of the cliff this is where the planes go dead flat for oceanic and now they can see the indians getting away. just like on cue or from whoever a howling norther wind that can blow in the fall the temperature drops 60 degrees in an hour it is the blu number dropping ice and snow. mackenzie has forgotten to put on their wit -- winter clothes because it was such beautiful weather and into the howling gale he leaves the warriors off and away and mackenzie and his men are forced to hunker down and lucky they did not freeze to death. but essentially quanah parker got away.

he schooled mackenzie of the planes warfare. one of the key things is escape. but very few instances in history where a commander takes of village into the field against his adversary and wins. that is the kind of commander quanah parker was. he was quite brilliant. the obviously escaped to find another -- fight another day he would not surrender until 1875 almost every single one of their food source had been killed. that is all i want to say tonight. i would be happy, do we have time for questions? i am happy to answer questions. >> [inaudible] that was her cousin rachel parker plumber. >> [inaudible] >> yes. this is one of the great things that you have at your

disposal. rachel plumbers diary which is an unbelievable account for the very few captives she was taken for many months on to the planes so it is rather extraordinary. it is published i also held the original. yes. i don't know how many around here but in texas the rare book collections will have it. [laughter] i don't know if i could living dead in most main library is but the rare book collections to easily could. >> you're descriptive as of the comanches ability to fight on their horses was absolutely fascinating. there are a few statistics

on how fast they could fire in narrow -- fire eight o that maybe people would be interested. >> talk about the comanche's amazing ability with the course the first time americans saw that was the expedition of 1834 iran into them they simply could not believe what they were looking at. people today could do what they did which is basically to use at a leather thong dip down to the side of the horse so you could not see them there were behind the horse but also fire under the neck of a horse with extreme speed trick riders

have duplicated it now but they could hit things with a full gallop. never seen anything like it before. nobody has ever seen their ability to break a horse. doing this that nobody had ever seen that they would often do things like chase the wild horses that were over a large piece of ground. they will let the course, to the water and before the horses got to drink the wolves do this to the caribou, the horses are constantly on the road not allowed to drink. so at the end what you see the comanche's do is try to get a rope on a horse and

get to the horse and it was in a complete lather then take its nostrils and blow into the nostrils and it would gentle the course. is like methane people had seen before the only indian tribe with breeding and understood all of that. but the comanches, as far as we know in history, a small tribe that lived in what is now wyoming which is now not a significant tribe then something happened that nobody saw and the emerging as a terrific a powerful force by virtue of the horse broke. >> [inaudible] >> interesting you should ask that. 1400 registered excuse me 14,000 of those, 9,000 lived

close to the old homeland of the reservation which is in oklahoma southwestern part. a few comanche's that are more widely dispersed. they have a couple of casinos for our think they do okay but they are wrestling with the same things that most other tribes wrestle with, but they still exist you can see the nation website and it is interesting. i had the opportunity for the honor with my book talks in the planes comanche's would come to it. there were 10 of them and of 80 stood up to say what do the comanche's think about your book? [laughter] a lot of them like it. some of them don't. i talk about quanah parker

father's death that goes against history. i know it does but i just believe that and we will not come together but on the hold the reception is pretty good. >> [inaudible] >> a very good question. how many people that i interviewed? and nine. because there were no living people that could inform 1/2 fined back then. but i had in the 1930's thankfully there were two or three different projects where people recorded comanche's from the old days from the pre-reservation period. they did studies and there is a lot of that. i relied on that. those guys did my

interviewing for me. there was not much point* like interviewing me about my grandfather's experiences of world war i. one of these days, i wrote about the chickasaws last year when of the goals is to do current day interviews. >> [inaudible] could you elaborate how much society has organized retribution? >> the question is to what extent were the raids the comanche's performed were revenge or